STAR WARS: STARS OF DARKNESS
by Kyle the Crazy American
Summary: Set around 1080 BBY, this story centers around two brothers, Elwood and Nayr Rouge. They begin their careers as smugglers, but when they discover their Force sensitivity, they end up going across the galaxy in search of their destinies...
1. Chapter 1: The Mission

STAR WARS

STARS OF DARKNESS

It is the Republic Dark Age. Lawlessness and chaos are widespread, as the Republic is on the verge of collapse. Naturally, it is a fine time for smuggling.

Two brothers, ELWOOD and NAYR ROUGE, are taking advantage of this. They work for Hueil the Hutt, a crime lord based on Faldos. They do their job exceptionally well.

Their latest job is to steal as much as they can from Weriot Stellum, a Gastrulan rival crime lord, in hopes of putting him out of business. They have just arrived at Gastrula, and are preparing to infiltrate Stellum's base…

Chapter 1: The Mission

"Well, here we are," Nayr stated. "Gastrula." He was rather short for a human his age, but one didn't notice when the only other sentient in the ship, his younger brother Elwood, was even shorter. It was not youth but genes that made the two short, as each was well into his twenties.

"Is that it? I was expecting a planet like this to be a little…bigger," Elwood remarked, frowning.

"Well, whatever. Cutting to the chase: the place is full to the top with guards, so marching in with guns blazing would not be smart," Nayr began.

"And if the place has that many guards, it's likely to have dozens cameras, so sneaking in isn't gonna work either," Elwood observed.

"Right." Nayr decided to let Elwood try and figure out the rest for himself, and thus said nothing more at this moment.

"So we'll need to find a way to disable all their security cameras, and do it quickly," Elwood concluded. "Preferably from the outside."

"Exactly. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna cut their power," Nayr grinned.

Elwood made a face. "But that way, I can't do any slicing…" he complained.

"True, but droids are self-powered. You could reprogram theirs to fight for us."

"Nah, that'd take too long. But who cares? It's a job. Let's go." At this, they both grinned that lopsided grin that only rogues, scoundrels, and pirates could grin.

Minutes later, their ship, the _Twilight Eagle_, touched down on the surface of the planet. They'd landed behind a short cliff, short enough to climb easily enough but tall enough to sufficiently hide the _Eagle_. Nayr had picked precisely the right spot, he told himself smugly. Soon, they were off the ship, with their weapons drawn, and on their way to the power generator. It was a short hike from where they'd landed, and when they were within sight of the generator, they hid beside the cliff as they advanced. However, one of the guards noticed them approaching.

"Outworlders! Shoot!" he shouted in Huttese.

The smuggler brothers softly cursed in unison. Elwood quickly thought up a serviceable bluff, pointed toward the direction they'd come from, and began to speak in Huttese: "Don't shoot! We are friends! Dangerous pirates are here! We tried to hide when they came!" It was very much a spur-of-the-moment fabrication, but it would work…

…Or so he hoped. Some of them were fooled, but most of didn't believe him. "Do you feel lucky, punk?" one said. Another told them, "You're in trouble now."

Following this, a chaotic firefight broke out, beginning with the three guards that saw through Elwood's lie moving into position and opening fire on Nayr. Whether they felt pressured or just weren't good aims was anyone's guess, but the fact remains that none of their shots touched him at first. Soon after this, though, Nayr sustained a hit that nearly made him drop his heavy blaster pistol. He gave a slight cry of pain, but it was hardly audible over the sounds of battle.

As the last guard fell by their guns, Elwood looked back at his brother and noticed his wound. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Nayr responded flatly with a slight grimace. "It's just a graze."

"All right. I got some slicing to do." Elwood put away his blaster carbine and began slicing the computer that controlled Weriot Stellum's power generator. As Elwood soon discovered, this computer could also be used to do much more. He caused quite a bit of chaos through the computer.

When he had finished, he told Nayr, "I decided not to cut their power when I could deactivate all their security cameras without doing that. I also got a map of the place and zapped a room full of guards."

"Good work," replied Nayr, who had been looting the bodies of their dead opponents. "Let's go."

A steep, winding trail had been crudely cut into the cliff nearby, which the brothers now ascended. It was not a long trail, but the steep incline left each slightly winded, so they rested briefly before continuing. It was about 200 yards from the top of the cliff to Stellum's base. When they arrived, they found ten guards stationed along the long side of the rectangular building. To minimize their chance of being seen, they moved to a shorter, less guarded side of the building. Not a single one of the guards noticed either of the brothers, and the two got inside without any trouble.

"So, Elwood, you saw a lot of the place through the cameras, didn't you? Which doors should we open?" Nayr whispered.

"Well, if I remember right, the doors next to us are full of guards, and while they're not likely to see us, even they would have difficulty not noticing if a door opened without any visible cause," Elwood cautioned.

"Then you'll set a mine in front of the door before opening it. When they come out to see who opened the door, they'll get blown up," Nayr grinned.

Elwood sighed, but didn't object. The explosion from the mine wouldn't kill them all, but the remainders could be dealt with easily enough. His brother was far too reckless, though he never seemed to pay for it, Elwood mused.

One of the guards must have seen the mine that Nayr placed, as the brothers heard the words, "No, no, wait, _don't!_" Either his companion didn't listen, or it was too late, because as the first of the guards exited the room, his body was blown into the door on the opposite side of the hallway, which he hit with a sickening crash, then fell. He didn't get up. The rest of the guards on this floor of the complex, about ten, presented little challenge for the brothers, although they did sustain a few wounds during the fighting.

After the skirmish, the pair put their weapons away and looted their opponents' bodies. They'd been in the business of smuggling and fighting for a long time now, and they knew that one of the easiest ways to earn extra money from doing a job they were going to be doing anyways was to sell their opponents' possessions. It may not have been nice, but it helped them, and dead men use no items.

And then, of course, there was the whole point of their mission to get to: stealing from Weriot Stellum. Every room in the hallway contained either metal boxes, plasteel cylinders, or footlockers, all storage units. Surprisingly, some of the footlockers were actually locked, but that didn't cause a problem; Elwood had a great deal of skill in bypassing security on doors and storage units. Eventually, they reached a room with three female Twi'lek slaves. "Don't kill us! Don't kill us!" they begged.

"Relax," Elwood told them. "We're here to free you. But we still got some guards to take care of, so stay here and we'll pick you up on our way out." Directly across the hall were more slave quarters, and this time the slaves were human women. Elwood gave them the same promise of freedom that he'd given to the Twi'leks. Following this, Elwood and Nayr split up again, and each went into a different one of the two elevators in the complex. Oddly, there were only two floors; why Stellum would want an elevator for only two floors was beyond the capacity of either of the brothers, but they didn't have time to just sit there and wonder about it.

When they reached the second floor, a band was on stage in front of the crime lord, as were three Twi'lek dancers dressed in skimpy costumes, although they were not currently performing. Two other bands were also in the room, but not playing at the moment. There appeared to be little of value in this room; however, Elwood didn't know why, but he was sure there must be something more here than met the eye right away. _But what could it be? _he wondered.

"What could what be?" Nayr whispered. Elwood blinked. _Wait a minute, did I say that out loud? _he thought. "Yeah. What's so strange about that?" his brother replied. Now Elwood stopped in his tracks. Something very strange was definitely going on. Somehow, Nayr was able to hear Elwood's thoughts. Elwood would ask him about that later. For now, they had to focus on the matter at hand. "Well, uh… I'm sure there's something of value in here, but I don't know what it could be," he explained quietly. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

As they drew closer, they began to hear Weriot Stellum snapping at the dancers, "Give me something sultry, you whores! How about a strip dance?"

"But that wasn't one of the terms of our contract!" one protested.

"Well, it is now! Get to it!" he bellowed.

"Who do you think you are, to order me to do something like that!?" she shouted back.

Stellum glared at her. "You'll strip dance or my men will hold you at gunpoint while I strip you myself! Got it!?" he roared.

"…Yes, sir," the dejected Twi'lek answered. With that, the band began to play.

Just as the first dancer was about to begrudgingly remove the first part of her costume, one of Stellum's Trandoshan bodyguards noticed Nayr sneaking up behind the stage. "Sir! There's an intruder in this room!" he told his boss in Dosh.

"What!? Band, stop! There's an intruder!" Stellum barked. The guard that noticed Nayr ran toward him and began shooting at him with a blaster rifle, missing over his shoulder. The brothers began shooting at the bodyguards, who were a fair amount more agile than they looked. Their armor also made it harder to hurt them, but in the end even that couldn't save them.

At the sight of his bodyguards sizzling on the floor, Stellum put his hands up in surrender. "I say we kill him," Elwood suggested. "He's scum, and he'll keep being scum as long as he lives."

"You're right. Let's do it," Nayr agreed. Stellum was frozen with fear, making Elwood and Nayr's job easier. Elwood tried not to think about the fact that they were about to kill an unarmed opponent as he approached the crime lord. After a brief hesitation, they both shot him, and he fell off his chair and onto the floor. Behind his chair, they found a high-quality astromech droid, of the designation XR-K1.

"Go on, get out of here," Nayr ordered the bands and dancers, who got into the elevators and left. He then looted the bodies of the bodyguards, who, as he had thought, had some very nice equipment. They must have, he'd assumed, to be a match for himself and his brother.

As they left, Elwood 'woke up' the droid and told it, "Weriot Stellum is dead. You belong to us now. Don't worry, we're not bad people. We'll treat you well. Let's go." The droid beeped its consent, and followed them to the slave quarters. When they got there, they freed the slaves and led them to the _Twilight Eagle_, and soon afterwards left the planet.

As their ship was leaving the atmosphere, Elwood began to speak to Nayr. "Nayr, when we were in there, and you heard me talking, I wasn't actually saying anything out loud. I was thinking it."

Nayr frowned. "You…you're serious, aren't you?"

Elwood nodded. "Also, when we entered the room, even though XR was hidden behind the chair and the bodyguards and we couldn't see her, I somehow knew that there was something valuable in that room. I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but after thinking about it some more…"

Nayr shook his head. "No, we're not going to Coruscant. They'll know about us and how we're smugglers… Wait, no they won't. They cut off the HoloNet beyond the core worlds decades ago, and they can't afford to have law enforcement in the Outer Rim with that war they're fighting against the Sith. The answer is still no."

Elwood paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before he spoke again. "Do you want to just keep being a smuggler for the rest of your life, doing the dirty work for a sentient pile of lard who prospers through the suffering of others? That's not good enough for me! I want to do something with my life, you know? I wanna have a great mission. People like us were meant to live for so much more than what we are now. I mean, I know this was the only thing we could do as uneducated orphans on Corellia, but now we've got it made. We need to take hold of our own destiny, not just go with the flow. Fighting the Sith…"

"No," his answered firmly.

"Nayr—"

"Fighting the Sith directly is something other people can do," Nayr explained. "We have something we can do to help the Republic that few others could and nobody else would do: if we gain the support of the Outer Rim's gangsters in the Republic war effort, we can turn the tide of the war." Apparently, Elwood's miniature speech had convinced him that this was the right course of action.

"Then…"

"Yes, we'll go to Coruscant. We can send the slave women off with a thousand credits each to start their new lives of freedom, and then we'll head to the Jedi Temple with the proposal that if they'll train us, we'll earn the gangsters' support in the Republic war effort."

"Sounds like a plan," his brother smiled. As Nayr began to punch in the appropriate hyperspace coordinates, Elwood couldn't help but wonder what such an utterly different life would hold for them.


	2. Chapter 2: The Proposal

Chapter 2: The Proposal

"_You can't do this. You can't kill me." The voice was filled with arrogance, which ignited a fire of hatred in Elwood's mind._

_Heat. He was sweating like a pig, but an icy chill ran down his spine and quickly spread through his body. Fear. Someone was in grave danger of being killed. Resolve. Nothing would stop him now—he had never before undertaken such a vital task, and was not about to fail. Kill the enemy, or die trying. Division. To kill the enemy would mean destroying himself. This was not the way it was supposed to be. He must stop it. He must…_

Elwood awoke suddenly, gasping for breath. For a brief moment, he was unsure of where he was. The sound of Nayr snoring nearby reminded him that he'd been sleeping in main hold of the _Eagle_ rather than his usual sleeping quarters; he'd let the ex-slave women borrow his, as had Nayr. He couldn't go back to sleep with Nayr snoring so loudly, and he knew he would be more likely to survive waking a sleeping rancor than his brother. With these things in mind, he went to the cockpit to contemplate his dream and its consequences. However, he found that by the time he reached the cockpit, all he remembered was the fear. His dreams always left him quickly when he woke up, leaving little if any time for thinking about them.

A beeping alarm told him that they were approaching Coruscant. He cut into sub-light engines and, as the white parallel lines that were stars became dots, the large, whitish-silvery planet appeared before him.

"Well, here we are," said a familiar voice behind him.

Elwood was startled, and as he turned around to see Nayr standing there squinting, he tried to hide a sheepish grin. He didn't think the alarm had been loud enough to wake anyone, but then again he supposed that if it hadn't been and he hadn't had his nightmare to wake him up, they might have crashed straight into the planet. Needless to say, this would have been a rather undesirable outcome. "Yep," he finally answered. "Here we are."

A little over an hour later, the brothers stepped out of an air taxi and onto the grounds of the Jedi Temple. Nayr was sure that others—such as his brother, who he saw staring in awe at the gigantic edifice—must think it was a magnificent piece of art that symbolized the altruistic goals of the Jedi, but to him it was just a building. He was all business.

"Hello, and welcome to the Jedi Temple," a young female Jedi greeted them. "What is your business here?"

"We need to talk with the Jedi Council. We have a proposal for them that would benefit all of us," Nayr told her.

"Do you have some form of identification, or…?" she asked.

"Why are you worried? They're Jedi Masters. They'll know if I'm up to anything, and they could kill me before I could even pull out a blaster," the smuggler assured her.

"That is true. However, I sense that the Force is very strong in you as well. How am I to know you aren't Sith Assassins?" she questioned.

"Are the Sith really stupid enough to try and take on twelve Jedi Masters with two assassins?" Nayr asked.

"Maybe not, but you could have reinforcements coming in from other entrances…"

"Does everybody get this kinda shake-down when they get let in? If I am strong in the Force, as you say, and I really do want to help, and you end up being the one to push me away, do you think your Jedi Masters are gonna be happy?" Nayr nearly shouted.

Noticeably shaken, the Jedi woman pointed and said, "The Council Chamber is at the top of that pillar. I'll notify them that you're coming."

Nayr thanked her, and then headed into the elevator with Elwood following close behind. A short while later, they stood before the Jedi Council. "Greetings, great Jedi." Nayr gave a bow, and Elwood, realizing he should do the same, followed suit.

"Says the Force, 'Led I,'" responded one member of the Council. He was a short, brown-skinned, long-eared life-form with three-fingered hands, and thin white hair growing on the many ridges on his head. This was Jedi Grand Master Toiew Weoriu, who was a little over 900 years old and had a penchant for rhymes. The New Sith Wars had been going on throughout his entire life.

Judging by the confused frowns on their faces, the cryptic response must have utterly confounded the brothers. "The Force has led you here," another Council member explained. This was a Zabrak male, with horns on his head where hair would be on a human. His name was Au-Riao Ahkeoathe.

"So it would seem," Elwood agreed.

"Well, first, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Nayr Rouge, and this is my brother Elwood. We've lived on the Outer Rim for our whole lives, and for several years now we've worked as smugglers for a crime lord." He paused for a moment before continuing. "But lately, we've been unsatisfied with it. It's missing something. And besides, we don't want our stories to just disappear into nothingness when we die. We want to be remembered. We want to have stood for something. So here's the deal: you train us in the ways of the Force, and we'll help you by getting support for the Republic from the Outer Rim's gangsters, possibly turning the tide of the war with their resources."

"And how do you plan to do that?" asked Ahkeoathe.

"We would tell them that if they agree to help the Republic, they will be recognized as a legitimate business and allowed to continue with what they're doing," Nayr told him.

Ahkeoathe nodded. "We'll have to discuss this at length in private. Feel free to explore the temple while we talk, and if it takes more than a day, you can sleep in the dormitories."

"Thank you." Nayr and Elwood bowed, and then left.

The brothers explored the temple a bit before sunset, and then went to the dormitories and slept. The next morning, the Jedi woman who'd greeted them before told them that the Council had reached a decision, and that they were to go up to the Council chamber.

"We have decided to train you," Ahkeoathe told them. "We need all the help we can get. Many Jedi fall in battle, and many more are captured and converted to the evil ways of the Sith. But you must be prepared; the training alone will probably be the biggest challenge of your life so far."

"Indeed," added Toiew, "the paths you walk, difficult are."

"I am prepared to accept whatever difficulties await me," Elwood stated boldly.

"I am also," Nayr put in.

"Then we have no time to lose."

The brothers were both given the title of Apprentice, since they couldn't be Padawans yet and they weren't exactly Younglings, either. Over the next year, Nayr and Elwood discovered their latent powers. Elwood had a strong affinity for lightsabers; he was considering pursuing a two-weapon style, but in the end it proved too challenging. Nayr was more talented at using the Force to enhance his persuasive abilities. When the two sparred with training lightsabers, Nayr's martial abilities were outmatched by Elwood's, but Nayr could convince any weak-minded individual to do his bidding with relative ease. Elwood spent a great deal of time honing his combat skills, and thus had little time to improve his abilities in the Force or other skills. In short, they complemented each other quite well, as always.

Each constructed his own lightsaber. Elwood used a standard green lightsaber. When he'd made it, he'd dismantled a vibroblade and used the cortosis weave of its blade to make a hand guard, which he mounted around the grip of his weapon as a hand guard to better protect against the Sith. At least, that was what he said. In reality, it was as much that as that he thought it would look cool. In addition, he'd used bronzium plating on most of the outside, giving it an orangey sheen. Nayr had constructed a yellow-bladed lightsaber with no self-expressing modifications. It was functional, and that was enough for him.

At the end of this year, the Council declared that each had risen to the rank of Padawan, and then gave them a mission: they were to go to Iridonia and rescue Ajecina Gnech, a powerful Jedi Knight who had been captured in the recent Battle of Iridonia, in which the Jedi had attempted and failed to liberate the planet from Sith control. This promised to be a dangerous mission, and they were not expected to do it alone; they would have help from Nadro Zeesfo, a recently-promoted Jedi Knight, and Eroka Kaineipok, a Republic war heroine.

Before heading to Iridonia to carry out the mission, the brothers set up a meeting with their two new allies one afternoon at the Public Center of the Jedi Temple. Presently the brothers sat with Nadro; Eroka had yet to show up.

"So you're the smugglers everyone keeps talking about," Nadro stated, a hint of criticism in his voice.

"Well, not anymore," Elwood replied. "We're kind of past that. We're done with it."

"We're trying to help you and your stagnant Republic," Nayr retorted, "though I don't know why we're trying."

"Nayr, please… Let's not be arguing," Elwood pleaded. "We need to get along. We need to trust each other if we're gonna work together."

"I guess you're right," Nayr sighed. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, don't worry," Nadro reassured him. "I was overly critical. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"It's all right," Nayr told him. "So, you play pazaak?" Elwood groaned and placed his hand on his forehead at the mention of the card game.

"Actually, I do," Nadro answered, albeit with some surprise and embarrassment. "But I don't really gamble. For me, it's kind of a pass-the-time thing. Plus, it helps get people talking that know useful things on missions. Why, do you want to play?"

"No, not right now. Maybe on the ship. You play anything else?"

"Firepath, on occasion."

If Nayr had been consuming any kind of food or beverage, he would have choked on it. "Firepath!? You, a Jedi? …I'm impressed."

"We're all Jedi here," Elwood reminded his brother.

At about that time, an airspeeder stopped near them. Two humans were in it, and both of very interesting appearance. One was a man with a forest of wildly curly hair on his head, and the other was a petit woman dressed in green clothes and carrying a blaster rifle across her back. Her blonde hair covered her ears and some of her neck, but did not quite reach her shoulders.

"You know, Eroka, I'm kinda worried," the man said. "What if they see you? They'll be like 'Oh, shoot! There's a sniper! Ahhh! Kill her!' And if you were to die…that would be really bad."

"I know. I'll be careful. I'll come back alive, I promise." The couple kissed for several seconds. All three Jedi, seeing this, felt a slight twinge of jealousy, but it was a mild feeling that faded quickly. Following this, she exited the vehicle with a "'Bye!" to which the man replied with the same, and then flew away in his airspeeder.

"Hey, guys! I'm Eroka! What's going on?" she greeted the group jovially.

"Well, we were talking about games we play, actually…" Nadro told her.

"I play lots of games," she grinned. "Pazaak, dejarik, cesa…pretty much everything."

"Awesome," Nayr smiled.

Elwood tried his best to put on a polite smile, but somehow fake smiles didn't work for him. He thought about saying, 'Well, why don't we get started on more important things, like the mission? We'll have plenty of time to talk en route.' However, before the words came out of his mouth, he remembered that they'd set up this meeting specifically to get to know the two new crew members. He ended up just adding, "I guess."

For a few hours, the foursome sat and talked, eventually ate dinner together, and they all grew to be good friends quickly. When it grew dark, the brothers took Nadro and Eroka to the _Eagle_.

"What a piece of junk!" a horrified Nadro whined.

"Aww, come on now, be nice. Appearances can be deceiving. I made a lot of special modifications myself," Elwood answered defensively. "But, it's kinda late, so let's just get onboard, get on our way, and get some sleep."

"Sounds okay to me," Eroka agreed.

So they did just that. What used to be Elwood's quarters became the all female sleeping area, which Eroka would have all to herself until Ajecina's rescue had been completed, and what used to be Nayr's became the all male sleeping area, which got quite crowded; however, as they all somehow knew, the worst was yet to come.


	3. Chapter 3: The Rescue

Chapter 3: The Rescue

Nadro yawned. The night before, during which the _Twilight Eagle_ traveled through hyperspace to Iridonia, had been by far the least restful night he'd had for quite some time. The position he'd laid down in when the crew went to bed had unfortunately turned out to be quite uncomfortable. He wasn't able to move freely, either, due to the compact size of the quarters and the two other men sleeping nearby. So, not wanting to disturb them, he'd laid there and stared at the ceiling, hoping his eyelids would eventually grow heavy and he'd fall asleep despite his discomfort. 'Eventually' ended up being the key word—it took him at least two, no, _four_ hours to fall asleep. Was it really four hours? He wasn't quite sure. It seemed like four decades. All he knew was that this morning he was still tired when he awoke, but had been quite unable to go back to sleep.

Presently Nadro sat in the cockpit of the _Eagle_, trying to figure out what some of the readings on the instruments meant. He'd never been trained to fly a ship, nor had he taught himself, and thus he had no knowledge whatsoever of anything he saw in front of him. In fact, it was all so confusing that he just wanted to…

……………just…

……………………rest…

……………………………his eyelids…

………………………………………………for a minute or two…and finally ended up getting some good sleep early that morning. There must have been a large investment made in the pilot's chair, as it was easily the most comfortable chair on the ship.

The next one to wake up was Elwood. If an alarm had awakened him, he would be groggy and half-asleep for hours afterwards. However, anytime he woke up on his own, he was instantly alert, and thus noticed quickly that Nadro was missing. He grabbed a lightsaber, but didn't ignite it, as he wasn't sure there was anything wrong, and the noise of the activation was sure to wake his brother. He then realized that he could sneak into the female sleeping area and look upon Eroka's sleeping body, which would presumably be less covered than usual. But a year of Jedi training, along with his own instincts and sense, told him that it was not a good idea, and more than that, it was _wrong_. He did his best to cast that dirty thought, along with others that accompanied it, out of his mind. He hated himself for even thinking of doing such a disgusting act. And besides, he should return his attention to the moment. The possibility of a threat on his ship.

Elwood searched the main hold, the cargo hold, the med bay, and even the engine room. Not a trace of anyone beyond the passengers he already knew about. Eventually, he found Nadro sleeping in the cockpit. Having convinced himself that there was not a stowaway, he decided to get some breakfast from the ship's food synthesizer, which he ate in the main hold. Once finished, he returned to the cockpit and took a seat in the co-pilot's chair that had always been his. With nothing else to do, he meditated, and as he did so, the Force gave him a vision.

_Elwood stood in a dark cave. He could barely make out the shapes of the walls, ceiling, floor, stalactites, and stalagmites surrounding him, but it barely mattered. The silhouette of a human or near-human stood before him a lightsaber lit. It was then that Elwood noticed he had his own weapon activated as well. He was about to do battle with this mysterious figure. "You can't do this. You can't kill me," said the silhouette. The voice was filled with arrogance, which ignited a fire of hatred in Elwood's mind. Elwood took the offensive, unleashing an onslaught of pure power through his blade, and the opponent was forced to give ground…_

The vision disappeared, leaving the young Jedi to wonder what it could mean. Who was his opponent? Would this actually happen? When would it happen? Where was the duel taking place? And the most important question: was his opponent a Dark Jedi, or was Elwood? Fear filled his mind. He began to breathe heavily. Fear was the path to the dark side, he remembered. There is no emotion; there is peace. Summoning all his willpower, he buried the fear in the back of his mind, and then, to keep his mind off of the disturbing vision, he decided to check on the _Twilight Eagle_'s progress. From what he could tell, the ship was going to reach its destination in a few hours. He returned to his meditation at that point.

A little while later, Eroka woke up and went to get some breakfast. Elwood must have heard her go to get it, as he came out of the cockpit to greet her when she was about to start eating.

"Good morning," he whispered. Since the other two were still asleep, Elwood figured they should whisper to make sure they didn't wake them.

"Hey," Eroka smiled groggily, "how's it going?"

"Can't complain," Elwood shrugged. He searched his mind for something to talk about, and after a moment, he came up with, "So tell me some war stories."

"You wanna hear about the battles I've been in?" Eroka asked. "You wanna hear about the victims of my blaster rifle? All right, I'll humor you. Do you know about the planet Kashyyyk, where the Wookiees are from?"

Elwood frowned, rubbed his chin, and at last spoke. "Only very little. I know that it is thick with forests, and, as you said, it's the Wookiee homeworld."

"Well," Eroka continued, "it's a contested planet. It has been for a long time. You know, those Sith just don't know when they're losing."

"Perhaps they do know it, but refuse to admit it," Elwood suggested, then shrugged. "Go on."

"It was stupid of them to even try," Eroka told him. "The Wookiees, who know the planet like no one else, are on our side. They know their way around the thick, dark forests. So we worked together with them to set traps for the Sith. And what's more, they didn't have a comfortable place to sleep. Most of them had to sleep outside, on the ground."

"Why in the world would anyone in their right mind fight in an army like that?" Elwood wondered. "They don't get treated well by their superiors, they're fighting for an evil cause, and they don't have any kind of comfort while in the field."

"The way I understand it," Eroka answered, "most of them joined the Sith because they thought they were going to win the war. By the time they finally see the Sith for what they really are, they've already been told that any deserters are punished with death."

Elwood nodded. "I see. So tell me more about your time on Kashyyyk."

"Unlike the Sith, we had nice treetop huts to sleep in during the night. And," she added with a grin, "the treetops also happen to be a great place for sniping."

"Nice."

"I'll tell you what, Elwood. There were days when I could've stayed in my bed all day and just opened the window and shot them right where I was. Of course, I had a post I had to report to, which was about a mile's walk on Kashyyyk's high-up walkways from where I slept. It was kind of frustrating, 'cause someone else's post was right outside my hut. I mean, they're the army. You'd think they'd be organized."

"Well, at least it was only one mile," Elwood said. "And besides, if you'd stayed in one place all day for the whole time you were on the planet, you'd start looking like a Hutt."

"That's true. Anyway, there was one battle that I think I'll remember for the rest of my life. We had intercepted a transmission saying that they were going to be going through a certain area at a certain time, and that area happened to be right below a hidden Republic base. So, with the Wookiees' help, we set a trap for them. Our standard foot soldiers hid in bushes and behind trees, and so did the Wookiees. There was even a Jedi down there with them. Me and the other snipers lay in wait high above them."

"Oh, wow…" Elwood exclaimed. "Those Sith were toast. They were doomed before they even got there."

"Yeah, pretty much, except there was one detail we didn't know about. As the enemy troops approached, our soldiers readied their weapons. Right when they were about to start shooting, one of the Sith shouted 'It's an ambush!' And then it turned into total chaos. Our soldiers on the ground pulled out their vibroblades, and so did theirs, and they started fighting. Our Jedi pulled out her lightsaber and joined them. I had the hardest time figuring out where to shoot to make sure I didn't hit any of our own people between all the slashing and parrying and blocking and stabbing. And that's when it happened." As she spoke the last sentence, her eyes were filled with the memory of fear.

"What happened?" Elwood asked.

"We were caught completely unprepared when one of them shot lightning out of their fingertips," she answered, closing her eyes.

"So they had a Sith Lord…" Elwood murmured.

"Three," Eroka corrected, and Elwood's eyes widened as Eroka's closed more tightly. "The losses were…terrible. I remember the bittersweet feeling of finally being able to get a clear shot at my targets and knowing that it was only because so many of ours had just been killed." Following this, she opened her eyes as she continued to tell the story. "I managed to head-shot the one that threw the first of the lightning quickly, but the other two had become aware of us, so they were harder to kill. I remember one of them managed to deflect my shot with his lightsaber, only to be shot by another sniper.

"The last one was able to deflect all of our shots fairly easily. And then he disappeared behind a tree, and I was like, 'Oh crap. How am I supposed to find him now?' So I looked around the forest floor for any sign of him. By then, all of the ordinary soldiers on both sides except us snipers were dead, so it was us and our Jedi against their Sith Lord. Our Jedi was in the middle of a clearing below us, and she must have been looking for him too.

"And then he just literally appeared out of nowhere and started attacking her furiously. I didn't dare shoot, 'cause I was afraid of hitting the wrong one. It was intense watching them fight with everything they had for about thirty seconds. But just as we thought she was about to win, the Sith Lord knocked her lightsaber out of her hands. I knew she was defenseless now, and he was going to kill her, so I just aimed quickly and fired, trying to just hit him anywhere. And you know where I ended up hitting him?"

"In the head?" Elwood guessed.

"Nope. Aiming carefully enough to hit his head would've taken too long, 'cause the head is a small target. I was aiming for just anywhere in the torso, and I ended up hitting the end of his lightsaber, so it didn't work anymore. Once that happened, he tried to Force her lightsaber to him, and she was trying to do the same, so it just floated there between them for a little while, right in the middle. After about five seconds, it started to drift toward the Sith Lord. I was terrified, 'cause I didn't want to see him kill her with her own lightsaber. And you'll never guess what happened then."

"What?" Elwood asked.

"It was almost at his hand, and…I'll never forget this…" Eroka smirked. "She did some kind of hand motion, and the lightsaber turned on by itself right as it reached his hand. He was totally dumbfounded when he looked down and saw the blade in his hand going right through his own chest. And that was the end of that battle."

The two laughed. Or was it two? Elwood turned around to see that his brother had finally woken up, and must have heard the last part of Eroka's story. "Oh, good morning," he said.

"Good morning," Nayr returned. "You guys swapping war stories?"

"Well, sort of," Elwood replied. "I haven't told her any of my stories…" He turned to Eroka and continued. "Although if you'd be interested, I—" He was interrupted by the ship's proximity alarm. "I'll take care of it, Nayr; you get some breakfast," he told his brother as he headed for the cockpit.

When he got there, he found Nadro half-panicked, frantically trying to figure out what was going on. He took his seat next to Nadro and cut into sub-light engines. As they looked out through the window in front of them, they saw the familiar sight of the blue hyperspace disappearing, with stars appearing as lines to replace it, which then turned to dots, and the grey and red planet Iridonia was visible. Nadro was only slightly calmed by this, and Elwood could see why; Iridonia did not look like the most inviting planet, but then again, it was under Sith control. And, come to think of it, it did have a somewhat forbidding presence to it. However, that wasn't going to stop them.

A little while later, the _Twilight Eagle_ touched down near the edge of an enormous canyon, at the bottom of which lay the Sith Academy where they guessed Ajecina would be held. There was some irony to the situation—it was a beautiful canyon, enhanced by the sunrise, but to admire it would be a dangerous distraction.

"I'd better take the lead," Nayr suggested. "I'm better at spotting traps than you are."

"Oh," Elwood responded. "Say, can you see by the dawn's early light?"

"I can see fine," Nayr answered. "Let's go."

"We should probably walk single file," Elwood said as they started out. "You know, to hide our numbers."

"That's a good idea," Eroka replied.

The group advanced carefully, being wary of any traps the Sith might have set. Indeed, Elwood recovered six plasma mines which had been set by the Sith as they descended the rocky trail to the bottom of the canyon.

When they reached the bottom, Nadro knew right away that there was still danger yet to present itself between them and the Sith Academy. "Look out. I sense danger," he warned his companions.

"Oh, really?" Elwood asked with mocking surprise.

"Yeah, really," Nadro responded.

"Just shut up and keep looking," Nayr ordered.

As it turned out, Nadro's fears were well-founded; when they had gone a bit farther, some snipers began shooting at them. The exact number of attackers was unclear, but it didn't much matter. All of them together were no match for three Jedi, a war heroine, and a top-of-the-line astromech droid with a blaster among her various tools and gadgets. Nadro was the first to begin cutting them down with the blue blade of his lightsaber, which made short work of a few of them. XR-K1 followed the Jedi somewhat, but stayed back far enough to cover them. Eroka moved very little during the fighting, as she was able to shoot accurately over great distances; her sharp-shooting was quite useful to the three Jedi. The battle was tougher than the group initially thought it would be, but it was still won. At the end of the skirmish, the Jedi focused their Force energies for a minute or two to recover the physical energy they'd spent fighting. Once that was done, they continued onward.

Beyond that, the group encountered no more traps or enemies until they reached the academy. When they did reach the academy, there was but one guard in front of the entrance…and six automated blaster turrets flanking him. The group hid behind a large boulder nearby as they formulated a strategy to get inside.

"Let's just chuck some ion grenades," Nayr suggested. "Simple, to the point, and gets the job done."

Elwood sighed and shook his head. "There are so many holes in that plan that it's painful."

"You got a better plan, then?" Nayr challenged defensively.

"Not at the moment, but you can't chuck any ion grenades if you don't _have_ any," Elwood pointed out.

"He does have a point, Nayr," Nadro agreed.

"Do we have ion blasters, then?" his brother asked.

"Nope, we sold 'em all," Elwood answered flatly.

"Then why don't you distract them while Eroka snipes them off?"

Elwood glared at him. "How about not."

"It's too risky," Nadro admonished.

"And besides, I don't know if I could shoot _that_ well," Eroka added.

"You're the best with the lightsaber; it's like training droids again. Yes, they'll be trying to kill you, but it's training droids." Nayr didn't seem to be making much effort to encourage this plan, or comfort his brother.

Elwood folded his arms and sighed again. "Here's an idea: why don't you be quiet for just a few seconds so we can hear ourselves think."

"You? Think? I'm surprised." He gave a silly grin.

Elwood was not amused. "Just…just shut up for a minute, okay? Please?"

"_No_," came Nayr's emphatic refusal. "I should sneak up on him and…"

"No," Elwood replied, "here's a better idea: we'll pose as students."

"Yeah!" Eroka agreed.

"It makes sense," Nadro said thoughtfully. "If they believe we're students, it will seem natural for us to be carrying lightsabers and using the Force."

"You know, you have a good idea every now and then," Nayr admitted. "All right, let's do it."

The group walked out from behind the boulder casually and approached the door. "Halt," the guard ordered. "What is your business here?"

"We are authorized to be here. We are students," Nayr told him amicably with a wave of his hand.

"You are authorized to be here. You are students," the guard repeated.

"You will open the door for us."

"I will open the door for you."

They walked inside, and saw a small group of Sith students, two men and two women. "Let's jump 'em and take their uniforms," Elwood suggested. "There's no one else around here to hear the commotion."

"Right," Nayr agreed.

So they fought once more. They caught the students by surprise, so it was a short fight, though not as short as they were hoping. It was also much more challenging than they expected. Nayr in particular took a beating from the dark side of the Force, being choked for a few seconds and suffering a blast of Force Lightning, but he survived. However, between Elwood's swift saber strokes, Eroka's shifty sharp shooting, and Nadro's deadly, dexterous dueling, the students didn't last long. Their uniforms were intact, and easily removed from the corpses, which were then dressed in the group's normal clothes. Now there was only one problem…

"Where do we change?" Elwood wondered.

"Right here, I guess," Nayr said. "Us guys will face this wall, and Eroka can face the opposite wall."

"…Okay." Eroka seemed uneasy. "Just don't look until I tell you I'm dressed, okay?"

"Don't worry," Nadro assured her.

A minute or so later, all four humans were wearing Sith uniforms, and Eroka carried a lightsaber, the only violet one of the four; the others were red. As they prepared to get moving, an unsettling thought just crossed Elwood's mind. He'd just killed a woman. A woman. And a pretty one at that. Nayr must have sensed that his brother was disturbed, as he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I hope we don't have to fight any more women," Elwood replied. "I…I feel sick. I know she was trying to kill me, and I've killed plenty of people before, but…it just seems so much more wrong to kill a woman than anything else. I…I must be sounding kind of strange to you…"

"No, not at all," Nayr reassured him. "I understand. They're fair and beautiful, most of them. But these women are Sith, Elwood. They do terrible things. Don't let your feelings get in the way of your purpose."

"Okay," Elwood nodded. With that, they moved on, passing through several doors as they went. Soon after, they encountered a Sith teacher. "Excuse me, sir. Where is the torture facility? We've been assigned to oversee Ajecina Gnech's torture today," Elwood lied.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't notified," he responded, frowning. "Who assigned you to that job?"

"Does it matter? We'll be late if we don't get there soon. Besides, why else would I have this astro-droid with me?" Elwood pointed to XR-K1.

"Yes, I see. Go down this hall, and it's the last room on the right," the teacher instructed.

"Thank you, sir. Let's go, people."

The group went where they were told, and found the Jedi they were looking for. She was chained to a wall and facing a viewscreen. The room was empty of Sith, fortunately. "Aren't you a little short for a Sith?" Ajecina asked.

"Huh?" Elwood was confused for a moment, then realized that she didn't know who he was. "Oh, the uniform. I'm Elwood Rouge, and we're here to rescue you."

"You're who?"

"I'm a Jedi. I—"

"Well then, get me out of these chains already," Ajecina ordered. Elwood ignited his lightsaber and began to acquiesce her request. As he did so, Ajecina exclaimed, "Eroka!"

"Ajecina!" Eroka returned excitedly.

"You two know each other?" Elwood asked.

"Yeah! She was the Jedi on Kashyyyk that I told you about!" Eroka explained.

"Small galaxy, isn't—" Nayr was interrupted by a blaring alarm that must have been automatically triggered when Elwood cut through Ajecina's chains. Eroka cursed loudly. "You'll have time for a sentimental reunion later," Nayr told them. "Right now, we have to get out of here. Fast."

Eroka tossed her lightsaber to Ajecina, who activated it, briefly admired its violet blade, and then followed the rest of the group out the door of the room. They raced down the hallway and all at once attacked the Sith teacher who'd given them directions before. He barely had time to react. He parried Nadro and Nayr's lightsaber strokes and deflected blaster bolts from Eroka and XR-K1 for a few seconds before violet plasma was thrust through his back and out his chest; Ajecina had used a Force-aided jump to fly over him while he was distracted, and then killed him from behind easily. The few guards around were killed quickly and easily, and then the group ran for the exit.

The crew reached the _Twilight Eagle_ a little while later, and then they were off. Elwood punched in the appropriate hyperspace coordinates, and the Twilight Eagle entered hyperspace, heading for Coruscant.

Once the crew was in hyperspace, things settled down quickly. Elwood got up from the co-pilot's chair and entered the main hold, where everyone else was. Eroka and Ajecina were already deep in conversation like the long-lost friends they were, and Elwood didn't want to interrupt. Nayr and Nadro had started playing Pazaak, which Elwood had no interest in. The only one besides Elwood who wasn't otherwise involved was XR-K1, and she was a droid. But, Elwood supposed, a droid was better than no one. So he began talking with the droid. "You don't say a whole lot, do you, XR?" he asked.

The droid beeped her response, which translated to, "I don't have much to say. Mostly, I do what I'm told, and that's enough for my master." As a tech-savvy man, Elwood had learned to understand the language of droids.

"But you must have thoughts on all of this…what we're like as people, what we're doing…" Elwood insisted.

"The Republic makes the equations balance. You are helping the Republic, so you are helping everything to add up. Thus, I am…content."

Elwood thought for a moment. "If that's the case, you must not have liked Weriot Stellum."

"Indeed, I was happy to come with you just to be away from him. He upset the balance of the equations like no other."

"So…what equations are we talking about?" Elwood asked.

"The equations. When an organic does good work, it prospers. That is an equation. When an organic does bad work, it falls. That is an equation. Every part of every organic's life consists of such equations. Organics are complex creatures. When I was first created, I thought of organics as simple things, almost like sentient bags of meat. However, as time passed I observed many of these equations adding up, and it was complex, but logical. In time I grew to appreciate the complexity of organics. Weriot Stellum completely destroyed the equations. He did bad work, but prospered. It defies logic."

"He may have prospered for a while, but if you recall, he did fall in the end…right off his chair," Elwood reminded her.

"Yes, this is true."

"Man, how do you keep winning!?" Nadro exclaimed. Even sitting down, he was remarkably tall, easily towering over the remarkably short Nayr. His dark brown hair was short and straight. He wasn't especially muscular or rugged, but his slimness helped him to be more agile in combat.

"Skills, my friend. Skills," Nayr answered arrogantly.

"Okay, deal 'em again. This time, you're going down!" Nadro shuffled his sidedeck, and Nayr his. Then Nadro had a thought: "This time, why don't I deal them?"

"You don't need to deal the cards," Nayr told him with a casual wave of his hand.

"I'm not laughing. Gimme the cards," Nadro insisted.

Nayr laughed hysterically. "Oh, fine, fine, be that way."

So Nadro shuffled the deck, placed it face-down between them, and they began to play. After several minutes of planning and posturing, Nadro emerged the winner of the match.

"Now what was this about 'skill'?" Nadro grinned.

"Oh, be quiet. I'll crush you this time."

"So how have you been, Eroka?" Ajecina asked.

"I've been good," the latter answered with a smile and a nod. "How about y—oh, wait…"

"Yeah," Ajecina grinned tiredly, "I haven't been so good." Her long, black hair was still moist with sweat from the effort spent in the escape, as was her pale face. The tortures of the Sith, including malnourishment, had caused her body to lose much of the muscle and color it had once had; but despite this, her black eyes contained an inexplicable peace, as if to say 'Oh, it's no big deal. Nothing a little rest, exercise, and good food won't fix.'

"What…what exactly did they _do _to you?" Eroka questioned uneasily. "Uh, do I really want to know?"

"Well, it wasn't really gruesome, it was just horrid. About three times a day, they would give me thirty seconds to study a pamphlet of Sith knowledge, and then give me like a hundred-question test on it. Every time I got a question wrong, they would zap me with Force lightning, Force choke me for a few seconds, or use other dark side powers to torture me, or…well, I guess there _is _one thing you don't want to know…" Ajecina grimaced, looking down at the deep wrinkles in the front of her tunic.

"Uh…I guess not…" Eroka mumbled.

"But let's move on to a happier topic. Did you ever confess your feelings to Arb?" she asked.

"Yes, I did!" Eroka beamed, practically bouncing up and down with delight. "We got married last year!"

"That's wonderful!" Ajecina smiled, embracing her old friend.

"It _is_ wonderful," Eroka murmured dreamily.

The next day the group reached their destination and reported the success of their mission to the Jedi Council.

"As you can see," Nayr told them, "Ajecina is safe and sound." The subject of his speech gave him an incredulous look after his last word. "Well…not sound," he recovered hastily, "but safe."

"Well done, young Jedi," Ahkeoathe congratulated them, "and thank you, Lieutenant Kaineipok, for your assistance."

"Oh, uh, you're welcome, Master Jedi," Eroka replied.

"Ajecina, we are gladdened by your safe return. Unfortunately, you don't have much time to rest."

"Yes, I know. Master, I have a request. Could I take Elwood as my apprentice? I'd like to help make sure he stays on the path of the light, and besides that, they could use another sword." Elwood and Nayr were both surprised, but neither was about to object.

Surprising them even more, along with Ajecina and Nadro, Ahkeoathe laughed. They had never seen the Jedi Master display anything but severity. "Funny you should ask, Ajecina. As a matter of fact, we of the Council were about to ask you to do just that. Nadro, you'd make a good master for Nayr as well."

"To the dark side, you will make them not themselves sell." Toiew explained.

"And, Lieutenant Kaineipok, we humbly request your assistance in this endeavor. It would be great help to your new friends, as well as the Republic."

"Um, with all due respect, Master Jedi, I really don't think I'm the right woman for this kind of mission," Eroka answered hesitantly.

"That is fine," Ahkeoathe stated. "You may leave." As she began to walk out of the council chamber, the Jedi Master turned his attention to Nadro. "And you, Master Nadro?"

"I'm ready to do the Council's will," said Nadro, who couldn't help but smile.

"Then be on your way. May the Force be with you," Ahkeoathe advised.

As the group left the Council chamber, Elwood asked, "So where should we go first?"

"Well, I imagine Hueil can't have been thrilled that we just up and left on him without any warning, so let's stay away from Faldos for a while," Nayr observed. "Nar Shaddaa might be a good place to start. Nosi the Hutt seemed rather fond of me when I visited before."

"Oh, yeah, that was when I had to deliver that load of spice on my own, wasn't it? Well, whatever. Fine by me," Elwood agreed.

None of the others objected, and thus within the hour, the _Twilight Eagle_ and her crew was on the way to Nar Shaddaa, also known as the Smuggler's Moon. During the trip, Elwood had an idea. "Hey, everyone, I was just kinda thinking—"

"Oh, really?" Nadro interrupted, much to Nayr's amusement.

"Yeah, really," Elwood responded, glaring. "Anyways, I was thinking…if we're all in this together, we're going to be a team for quite a while. So we should come up with a team name. The name I had in mind was the Stars of Darkness, because we're bright lights going into the heart of darkness."

"I don't like it," Nayr objected. "Stars _of _Darkness makes us sound like _we_'re dark, and the intensity of our darkness is as much as the brightness of a star. Stars _in_ Darkness might work better."

"All the more reason for it," Ajecina pointed out. "I don't imagine crime lords would welcome Jedi knowingly. It's better that only we know what it really means."

"Sorry, Nayr, but I have to agree with your brother on this one," Nadro said, curling the corner of his mouth inward.

"A cover identity, hmm? Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Nayr asked. "_That_ makes it logical."

With all in favor, the group became known as the Stars of Darkness.


	4. Chapter 4: The Smuggler's Moon

Chapter 4: The Smuggler's Moon

A few days later, they landed on Nar Shaddaa. In order to keep the group's presence on the moon largely anonymous, only Nayr went to negotiate with Nosi the Hutt; he was not familiar with any of the Stars besides Nayr anyways, so it would make little difference to him. The others split up and investigated the possibility of Sith presence on the Smuggler's Moon. Since they arrived in the evening, Elwood decided to get himself a hotel room before starting his investigation. He found a decent place near a cantina known as The Burning Deck, paid for it, and then stood against a wall outside as he pondered what would be the best method of investigation. However, he became distracted by a beautiful young woman standing outside the cantina wearing revealing black clothes and a pair of tall black boots. The woman must have noticed his interest, as she began to walk toward him. His heart began to beat rapidly as he mentally scrambled for what to do.

"Hi!" she greeted him with a smile. "My name's Alexandra Nots. What's yours?"

"Elwood Rouge," Elwood answered.

"Pleased to meet you, Elwood!" Alexandra said sweetly. She put out her right hand, which Elwood shook, and then continued. "So what brings you to Nar Shaddaa?"

"Well, I'm looking for someone," Elwood explained. _It's true; not the whole story, but it's true_, he thought

"Who are you looking for? I could probably help you find 'em," the woman offered.

"Thanks, but I don't think I'll need any help," Elwood replied.

"Where are your friends?"

"I came here alone," the young Jedi responded.

Alexandra's jaw dropped. "You're all alone? You poor thing!" She hugged Elwood, and as she did so, her hand came a little too close to one of his lightsabers for comfort, so as he hugged back, he gently pushed her hand away from the pocket containing the weapon. After a moment, the embrace ended, and Alexandra grinned mischievously. "Want some…_company_…tonight? I'm yours for only a hundred credits."

"I don't deal with prostitutes." He sounded—and, slightly, felt—disappointed that this was the truth.

"Then why don't you buy me dinner? I would appreciate that, and I might…_reward_…you for your kindness," Alexandra suggested.

Elwood thought for a moment. He considered her tenacity, the lack of required chastity for a Jedi, Ajecina's possible reactions, and the tenets of the Jedi Code. Finally, he came to a decision. He told her he would take her to dinner.

Soon the two were eating at The Burning Deck. "So tell me about Nar Shaddaa," Elwood requested.

The Sith assassin Arella Sarona thought for a moment. "What is there to tell? It's where all the criminals in the galaxy like to hang out," she answered. "The whole planet's one big, stinky city."

Elwood shrugged. "I guess so." As he ate, his elbow knocked a salt shaker off the table. "Oh, crap," he muttered as he bent down to retrieve it. _Oh, wretched pervert_, Arella thought, scowling to herself. _He obviously did that on purpose to get a look up my skirt. But I still have to play the role of the brainless whore for a little longer, so I'll just act like I thought it was an accident. I'll get my revenge soon enough._ She put on a mask of ignorant bliss to hide her anger.

"Wanna tell me about yourself?" he asked once he had come back up above the table.

"Um, let's see…like I said, my name is Alexandra. I was born here. I've lived here my whole life. I started, uh, _working_ when I was fifteen. Here I am."

"There's gotta be more to it than that," Elwood insisted. "What were your parents like? What were your friends like? How was your childhood? That sort of thing."

"Uh, my mom did the same thing I'm doing, so I never knew my dad," Arella invented. "She raised me on her own. She was nice, and hardworking. I was friends with all of her friends. They all supported me and each other. When I was a kid, I would just kind of hang out with my mom, like, all the time."

"I see," Elwood responded. "You know, a girl as gorgeous as you deserves a life better than this."

"It's not that bad," Arella lied.

"Sure it is," Elwood countered. "You have to strip naked and do whatever any random guy wants in order to have enough money to buy food. I'm sure there's guys out there who make you do disgusting, dirty things, and there's ugly guys that you don't want to do _anything_ with. If you ask me, a girl as beautiful as you deserves to be a queen."

"Thanks!" she grinned falsely. She paused briefly, and then she remarked, "I'll bet you can't wait…" _…to die!_

"Oh, you know it," Elwood answered with a smile. Arella watched as he began to eat faster. _I've got him completely under my spell. Good. He'll be an easy kill if he's completely trusting and unsuspecting._ Soon, Elwood finished his meal, and got up from the table. Arella took his hand and held it, giving him an unreal delighted look, and Elwood led her back to his hotel room.

Elwood's heart began to beat faster. _I've got to have caution here. She's probably been waiting for the same opportunity I have: a solitary, enclosed space with no witnesses. She'll probably take that lightsaber out from under her skirt as soon as she thinks I'm not looking. So I have to turn the tables and be the first to catch her unaware. _He opened the door to his room, and motioned for her to head inside, saying "Ladies first." She entered, and he after her, shutting the door. It was a small room that the young Jedi and the Sith Assassin were enclosed in, with about only five square feet of empty floor on three sides of the bed, the fourth of which was against a wall. As she went across the room to the far side of the bed, Elwood stayed where he was for a moment. _It's now or never_, he thought as she removed her scanty top, exposing her underwear. He slid under the bed and pulled out his lightsaber while she had her back to him. _This is so not safe…_

A moment later, Elwood saw Arella's skirt hit the floor in front of him. He was very tempted to take a peek at her mostly-exposed body, but the thought of that was interrupted by the realization that her skirt was where her lightsaber had been hidden. Unless it was in her hand at the moment, it was on the floor in front of him. Carefully, he slipped his hand under the skirt and, to his delight, felt a warm metal cylinder, which he took and then pocketed along with his own.

As he was putting the weapons away, he heard Arella ask, "Elwood, where'd you go?" He thought briefly about whether it would be a better idea to just run or try to deal with her now. On one hand, if he ran away he was almost certain to escape with his life. On the other hand, if he humiliated her by stealing her lightsaber out from literally under her nose, she was likely to make it her single-minded life goal to make him suffer.

Elwood presently crawled out from under the bed and asked her, "Do you have any idea how dusty it is down there? You could just about build a ship from all that dust!"

Arella giggled. "What were you doing under there, anyways?"

"Just messing with you," Elwood grinned.

"Okay." She squatted over her clothing on the floor. "I'm just gonna get something out of my…" She stopped in mid-sentence. "What…"

"Looking for this?" Elwood asked as he casually drew and ignited her red-bladed lightsaber in his left hand.

She cursed and attempted to take it from him with the Force, but she could not wrench it from his firm grasp. Elwood then drew his own lightsaber in his right hand, and pointed both at her throat. "Try anything and I'll kill you. I don't wanna, but if I have to I will." He sensed she was about to use the Force, so he took a swing at her right hand, grazing her wrist at the same time that a stream of bright blue lightning sprang forth from her fingertips. Both screamed in pain, and intense frustration rose up in Elwood as he realized she had fried his lightsaber as well as his skin. He dropped the now-useless weapon and placed both his hands on Arella's lightsaber as he tried to recover from the pain of the Force Lightning.

Arella wasn't about to let him recover, though. "Take _this_, you _loffich!_" she swore in Zabrak as she directed the Force to begin crushing Elwood's throat, but her concentration was disrupted by the pain in her wrist, and she was unable to restrain him. She tried again, but this time Elwood was ready; he intercepted the Force energy that was about to crush his own throat and sent it back at her. She could only stare, dumbfounded, as she clutched at her throat.

"Take _what, schutta?_" Elwood mocked. However, Arella's determination, along with Elwood's relative lack of Force training, allowed her to break free of his grip soon thereafter, and then she used the Force to throw the bed at him.

"You like that?" Arella sneered. He was pinned against the wall for the moment, but used his lightsaber to cut himself free.

"Yeah, got any more?" Elwood retorted.

Arella was running out of ideas, and the frustration of so far being unable to defeat a Jedi Padawan was getting to her. "_Enough!_" she snarled. "_You die now!_" Her eyes turned yellow as she focused the power of the dark side within her. She grabbed at her lightsaber, but Elwood snatched it away quickly and counter-attacked, this time striking her right shoulder, but it was as nothing next to the burning fury that she had allowed to consume her mind. Elwood backed into the door of the room, where she tried once more to take back her weapon and was again denied. This continued for a few seconds as Elwood opened the door and continued to retreat down the hall of the hotel before Arella finally managed to seize her lightsaber, putting Elwood on the defensive. He quickly stepped back and pulled out his blaster carbine, but Arella was already onto him with her lightsaber. She made a long cut across his chest, but he used the Force to halt the energy of the attack, stopping it from cutting into his skin, in much the same way Darth Vader would stop Han Solo's blaster shots on Bespin over a thousand years later. Elwood retaliated with a brief burst of rapid-fire stun blasts from his gun, which, finally, incapacitated her.

Elwood switched his blaster carbine back to lethal shots, and for a long moment, he simply stared at her wounded, unconscious body. He pressed the cold metal barrel of his gun against her soft, warm skin, but found himself unable to pull the trigger. He couldn't kill her. Despite the fact that she had tried to kill him and come a little too close to that for comfort, he couldn't end her life. Instead, he finally decided to bring her to his ship, where he dressed her in the Sith robes from the academy on Iridonia. He'd just finished locking her in the cargo hold when he heard his brother's voice over the comlink.

"_Calling all Stars. This is Nayr. We've got problems. Nosi has rejected the offer with violence. For the moment, I'm safe, but I don't know how long I can stay h—Uh-oh. Nayr out."_

Elwood cursed and lifted the comlink up to his mouth. "I'll be right there. On a separate note, I've confirmed a Sith presence on the moon." He then turned to the astromech droid, who'd been left with the ship, and said, "C'mon, XR, we need to go save Nayr."

Five minutes earlier, Nayr had stood outside Nosi's complex, where he encountered a security droid.

"Halt," the droid commanded.

"I am Nayr Rouge. I am here to speak with Nosi concerning a matter of the utmost importance," Nayr explained.

"What?"

Nayr studied the machine for a moment. "What planet are you from?"

"What?"

"'What'? They speak Basic on What?" The young Jedi was beginning to lose his temper.

"What?"

"Basic, Sithspawn! Do you speak it!?" he bellowed.

"What?"

"Say 'what' again!" he screamed. "I dare you to say 'what' one more Sith bleeding time!"

"What?"

At this point, Nayr completely lost patience, drawing his blaster, pressing it into the droid's behavior core, and pulling the trigger. Following this, the door to the complex slowly began to open. Nayr put his pistol away as he entered, and noticed that there were more guards on staff now than the last time he'd been here. Two of them approached him. "Nosi has been expecting me," Nayr told one with a wave of his hand.

"Nosi has been expecting you," the guard repeated.

"He will punish you if you delay me."

"He will punish me if I delay you."

"You would do well to let me be."

"I would do well to let you be."'

With this, Nayr's path was cleared quickly, and before long he reached Nosi's throne room. "Nosi," he began, "do you remember me? I'm Nayr Rouge, the smuggler who helped initiate your partnership with Hueil."

"_Ah, Nayr_," the Hutt grunted in his language. "_What do you want?_"

"I want you to be able to continue your business," Nayr told him, "indefinitely."

"_I already can_."

"Don't be so sure. Once this war is finished, either the Sith will crush you as part of their invasion, or the Republic will shut you down for illegal activities and throw you in jail," Nayr advised.

"_And?_"

"And if you help the Republic by giving financial aid, you will be recognized as a legitimate business, and allowed to continue. This same deal is going around to all of the gangsters of the Outer Rim. Enough of them will agree to win the war, and when that happens, you'll go straight down."

"_You don't know the gangsters like I do, Nayr Rouge. Not since you've been away for a year…Jedi. None of them will agree. I have no quarrel with you, but I don't want to be caught on the losing side._" He spoke to his guards next. "_Kill him._"

Nayr cursed and drew his lightsaber, barely before the first guard was upon him with a vibro-ax. It almost seemed as if some of them were delighted at the opportunity to kill a Jedi, as they all went after him like a starving dog after a sirloin steak. He was outnumbered thirteen to one, but this was the strength of his chosen form of lightsaber combat, Soresu: defense. His saber weaved in and out of his opponents' attacks almost effortlessly, twisting and parrying as if it was a dance. Some of the guards held blasters, and they shot at him so viciously that they actually gunned down one of their own men in the attempt to kill the Jedi. Seeing his opportunity, Nayr stepped over the dead body and made a break for the far corridor, cutting a power cord on his way. They attempted to pursue him through the now-dark hallway, but were slowed down by their heavy armor. When he neared a door, he deactivated his weapon and opened it. Once inside the tiny room and out of the guards' line of sight, he turned off the lights on the whole floor and crouched down low, sitting as still as possible.

Nayr realized then that since the room was so small, they could just throw grenades inside and he wouldn't stand a chance. He inched his way back out of the room and into the corridor. He knew he would need assistance to get out of this one alive, so he pulled out his comlink and whispered a brief message into it. By the end of the message, he'd been spotted, so he moved across the corridor as quickly as he could and into another room. This room was much larger, but still not safe. He started to creep towards it. Fifteen feet…ten feet…five feet…and one of the guards bumped into him from behind, and then attacked. Nayr was caught offguard, and took a nasty slashing wound to the chest. He ignited his lightsaber once more, and made his way into the next room while fending off several vibro-ax strokes, but the guards were not far behind. Before he could open another door, he was surrounded. Then, all of a sudden, the fighting stopped.

"Lay down your weapons," one of the guards told Nayr.

"And how am I supposed to know that you won't just kill me if I do?" Nayr shot back.

"The Sith have put out a bounty for live, captured Jedi, and Nosi wants to collect," the guard explained.

Without warning, Nayr stabbed the guard in the face, and the battle resumed. Evidently, Nayr had no intention of being captured by the Sith. He opened another door in attempt to escape, but found two guards behind it. He cursed, and tried another door a few seconds later. This one gave him a clear path back into the now-empty corridor, but the guards gave chase. Nayr discovered that he was beginning to feel faint, and realized that it was probably because of the blood loss from his wound. With few options left, he ran behind Nosi for cover. At this point, the Hutt himself began took a swing at the Jedi with his fist. Nayr was caught completely by surprise and knocked out cold.

Ajecina was walking along the highly elevated walkway of Nar Shaddaa when she heard a young man calling out for help. Naturally, she came running and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Oh, I…I…Sorry! They said they'd hurt me if I didn't call you!" the man sputtered.

"Who?" A pair of dangerous-looking Sith assassins jumped out from around the corner of a nearby building with their lightsabers ready. "Oh, fun," Ajecina muttered as she drew her lightsaber. This was sure to be a tough fight, but Ajecina was a tough woman. She swung her weapon at one, but he was able to block the stroke. Almost immediately afterwards, one of the assassins grabbed the man by the chest from behind and held his lightsaber to the civilian's throat.

"If you value this innocent man's life, you'll hand over your weapon right now," he told the Jedi.

_If I hand over my weapon right now, he'll kill him anyways_, Ajecina realized. _If I don't, he'll kill him. How do I save his life? Oh, I see now._ She used the Force to throw the man away from the assassins. "Run! Get out of here!" she shouted as the man landed, moving to stop the Sith Assassins who gave chase. But the civilian was too scared to move, and before Ajecina could stop him, the other Sith had him in his grip.

"He wasn't kidding. Try anything like that again, and this man will die. Now surrender," he demanded.

Ajecina muttered a curse. _Now what? Those Sith will be watching me for anything I try now. Somebody, please help me save this man._ The assassin was suddenly telekinetically slammed into his partner, but she didn't do anything!

"Did I miss something?" a familiar voice asked.

"Nadro! Good timing," Ajecina said as she cut one of the assassins down. The other scurried off back behind the corner of the building. "Trap," she muttered, but gave chase anyways. Nadro was close behind.

When they entered the building they'd seen the assassin escape into, the first things Nadro and Ajecina noticed were a pair of droids such as they'd never seen before. They had no weapons, but with their vicious metal claws they didn't exactly look like protocol droids. "I have a bad feeling about this," Nadro whispered.

"Kill them!" the assassin ordered. Nadro quickly ran around one of the droids and began attacking with the rapid, yet graceful strokes of the Ataru style. The droid was quick, but Nadro's lightsaber cut into its chest a bit. It grabbed at Nadro in response, but the Jedi ducked out of its way. Ajecina moved in next to Nadro and unleashed a wave of telekinetic energy through the Force to knock them all down. The Sith assassin had barely gotten up when his head was separated from the rest of his body by the blue energy of Nadro's blade. At the same time, the tip of Ajecina's blade grazed the already-damaged droid, but the other one knocked her flat on her back and pinned her down with its sharp claws, drawing some blood.

It was then that Ajecina heard familiar voices on the comlink. _"Calling all Stars. This is Nayr. We've got problems. Nosi has rejected the offer with violence. For the moment, I'm safe, but I don't know how long I can stay h—Uh-oh. Nayr out." "I'll be right there. On a separate note, I've confirmed a Sith presence on the moon. Elwood out."_ She ignored it for now and instead focused on trying to throw the droid off of her. Meanwhile, Nadro made another big slice in the other droid, but it still wasn't enough. After a bit more struggling, Ajecina knocked the droid off and answered the comlink. "I've got my own problems to deal with, but I'll get there when I can. Ajecina out."

"Glad you guys could make it," Elwood told Ajecina and Nadro, just outside the door of Nosi's complex. "Now, there's no time to lose!" He activated his…well, Arella's lightsaber.

"Whoa, what's with the red lightsaber?" Ajecina asked.

"Stole it from a Sith assassin who destroyed mine," Elwood explained. "It's either this one or a blaster, and I rather like the defensive capabilities of lightsabers. Let's go!"

"Wait, shouldn't we plan a strategy before we do this?" Nadro suggested. "The Hutt's guards must be pretty dangerous if they could force a Jedi to request backup. If we're not careful, we'll suffer your brother's fate…whatever that may be."

"He was on his own. We've got three people and a droid. We'll be fine," Elwood insisted.

"All right, but if they kill us, you'll live to regret it," Ajecina joked.

As an experienced slicer, Elwood had the front door open in no time, at which point they began to fight Nosi's elite guards. XR's blaster came in handy, as did Nadro and Elwood's lightsaber combat skills. The biggest factor in this fight, though, was Ajecina's incredible strength in the Force; she telekinetically slammed them all twice with such intensity that all but one were killed. This last one surrendered, not wishing to suffer the fate of his brethren.

Elwood ran past the remaining guard and lifted Arella's lightsaber, leaving the tip of the scarlet blade inches away from Nosi the Hutt's corpulent face. "Tell me where my brother is. _Now._"

"Be careful of your feelings, Elwood," Ajecina warned. "Don't let your anger control you."

Elwood closed his eyes, trying to push the burning rage out of his mind, but it wouldn't leave. Really, though, why should it? This was the Hutt who'd captured Elwood's brother, perhaps even killed him.

"_I don't fear you, Jedi,"_ the Hutt retorted in his language. _"Your kind doesn't kill prisoners."_

"Well, maybe we should _start!_" Elwood screamed, taking a swing at the Hutt. Its thick skin almost entirely stopped the blade, being only slightly charred by the crimson plasma.

"Elwood, _stop!_" Ajecina demanded. "This isn't the Jedi way!" She paused for a moment, then continued in a softer, gentler voice. "You have an admirable heart, Elwood; don't change that."

The buzz-hiss of a Sith lightsaber being extinguished filled the room, and the scarlet blade disappeared. "Fine," Elwood muttered. "I'll find him myself." As he began to walk off, he added, "And if you dare try to stop me, I will jam this weapon into your face and keep it there until it kills you."

When he awoke, the first things he knew were that he was cold and that he was sore. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a ceiling. After a moment he realized that he was in a crude prison cell. He started to get up, but a sharp pain across his chest stopped him, and he lay back down. He clutched the vibro-ax wound, and found that he was touching bare skin around it. He felt the rest of his body and found nothing but more bare skin and a pair of boxer shorts.

"That looks painful," a nearby female voice said.

Nayr gently began to sit up, and saw a woman sitting against the cell wall across from him. Her bare knees were erect in front of her, and her hands were clasped together in front of her legs. She wore a hopeless expression on her freckled face, and despair echoed from her blue-grey eyes. Nayr could see a strip of cloth between her thighs and a thin strap over each of her shoulders. "It's not that bad. It'll heal," the young Jedi croaked. "What's your name?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the woman replied.

"Yes, I would, actually. Is a problem with telling me your name?" Nayr asked.

"I'll tell you what. You get me out of here, and then maybe I'll tell you my name."

"Fine. At least tell me why he captured you."

The woman thought for a moment. "Well, he was trying to get rid of me because I was trying to get rid of him."

"Working for a competitor?" Nayr inferred.

"You could say that," she responded.

"I sense there's more to you than meets the eye…and quite a bit meets the eye," Nayr murmured.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the woman questioned.

"Well, you're not exactly hard on the eyes," Nayr smiled slyly. The woman glared at him. "What?"

"Don't think you're gonna get anything from me just because I haven't got a decent amount of clothes on."

"I was just complimenting you! Is that a crime?" Nayr came back defensively.

"Compliments won't help us get out of here," she pointed out. "Let's think of a plan to escape."

"Fine."

"Not bad, Jedi," Shasa Norrab told Nayr several minutes later. Through the use of Nayr's mind tricks and her own Teräs Käsi training, they'd killed two guards silently and escaped from prison. They donned the guards' clothes as disguises. For Nayr, that was all that was necessary, but Shasa's disguise was more involved; Nosi the Hutt only hired male guards. The dim light in the basement aided them in their disguise as they walked past several guards. One saw through Shasa's disguise, but another mind trick from Nayr stopped him from telling the others.

Neither Shasa nor Nayr was about to leave empty-handed. All of Shasa's equipment, including a sniper rifle, a missile launcher, a jet pack, and her favorite black outfit, had been taken from her when she was captured. What made her burn with anger the most were the clothes; if she could've killed them all for undressing her while she was unconscious, she would have. As it was, she was in no condition to fight. Her left ankle in particular was screaming with pain, and it was all she could do to neither limp nor moan.

Shasa imagined the Jedi wasn't feeling much better than she was, as he'd most likely been captured in a similar way: being surrounded and overwhelmed. That was one experience she didn't want to repeat. She might have to extend her partnership with this Jedi beyond their escape from the Hutt's prison.

"Hey, who are you?" asked a Twi'lek in the center of the room. "I don't recognize you."

"We're new," Nayr lied.

"Nosi hasn't hired anybody new in a year. Who are you, really?" He tightened his grip on the force pike he was carrying.

"Me? No one of consequence," Nayr told him.

"Not you, her." The Twi'lek indicated Shasa, who cursed. "I'm thinking you look like that bounty hunter woman that the Republic hired to take down the Sith's weapon suppliers—"

Nayr gave a hasty wave of his hand. "No, she doesn't. She's not even a she. You are looking at an ordinary, male guard."

"No, she doesn't," the guard captain repeated. "She's not even a she. I am looking at an ordinary, male guard."

"So where are the prisoners' possessions?" asked Shasa in a deep voice.

"Why do you want to know?" the Twi'lek asked.

"It's our job to guard them," Shasa told him.

"Oh, all right. They're down the main hallway and to the right."

Soon they reached the room and found their possessions, which they gathered up and took. Once fully equipped, the two headed for the elevator, where they ascended toward the entrance of the towering building. Or, they tried to, at least. The elevator wouldn't budge. The words 'CODE REQUIRED' appeared on a small screen above the elevator's controls. "Do you slice, Jedi?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," Nayr replied, brandishing his lightsaber. The yellow blade cut through the metal of the ceiling like a fusion cutter through a sheet of flimsiplast. In no time at all, he'd cut a big enough circle in the elevator's ceiling for a humanoid to jump through. "After you," he grinned.

"Hold on. How do you plan to get us out of here from on top of the elevator?" Shasa questioned skeptically.

"I'm working on that," Nayr muttered.

Shasa figured an improvised plan would be better than no plan. She used her jetpack to fly up on top of the elevator, and Nayr, with the help of the Force, leapt up and on top of the elevator. When they got up there, they saw that the elevator was of a much older style than most. It used cables. Cables which, they realized, could be easily climbed.

Or, at least, it would be easy if they were feeling well. Given their current states of body, climbing would probably be tricky at best. It was then that Nayr remembered his comlink, which he presently activated. "Elwood, are you there?"

"_Nayr! Is that you!?" _came his brother's relieved exclamation.

"You bet it is," Nayr smiled weakly. "Where are you?"

"_Main floor of Nosi's complex. You?"_

"On top of an underground elevator, probably part of the same building. Can you activate the elevator?"

"_Gimme a minute."_ Several seconds later, the elevator began to ascend. _"That do the trick?"_

"Yep. See you in a minute." They did, and then the brothers hugged.

"So who's your lady friend there?" Elwood asked Nayr.

"Near as I can tell, she's a bounty hunter," the latter replied, then turned to the woman herself. "So, you said you'd tell me your name if I got you out of here. What is it?"

"Shasa. Shasa Norrab."

Nayr recognized the name immediately. She was a notorious bounty hunter throughout the Galaxy. "You're…but 'Shasa' is a Selkath name…" he sputtered.

"And 'Nayr' is a Cerean name," Shasa pointed out indifferently. "Does it make any difference?"

"No, I guess not." Nayr paused. "Wow. The real Shasa Norrab. How did they manage to capture someone like you?"

"You two can chat on the ship," Elwood interrupted. "It looks like we won't be getting any help from Nosi, so let's get out of here and go find another crime lord we know."

"All right, fine," Nayr agreed.

Elwood wasn't actually expecting the bounty hunter woman to join them, but she seemed to defy his expectations. But his surprise at that didn't come close to the shock he was in when the group reached Landing Platform 94 and found that their ship was gone.


End file.
